Thursday, February 6, 2014

Catching up

Well, it's been a while since my last post, and I feel like it's way past time for an update. Advent has come and gone, with a love feast and Christmas Eve services and all that goes with the busy, exciting, stressful holiday season. We got through it, and it went very smoothly in my opinion. The parishioners at these two little churches are sweet people who love each other most of the time, and going through the holidays with them was a warm and cozy experience.

Now we have to face the realities of the rest of the year. When I last posted, the smaller church had decided to use their savings on risk-taking ministry. There was some trepidation about change, but it seemed that most folks (out of the handful that participate) were aware that if they didn't change, the church would close in just a couple years. So they assented to the vision that our leadership team presented. In fact, the leadership team is basically everyone who comes to church there. It seemed we were all in agreement. As far as I know, there's nothing in the plan that anyone would come right out and object to. But there are signs of fear as they come to terms with the realities of actually making changes. Change is hard, even when you know it's coming and that it's necessary. People who have committed to specific tasks are feeling overwhelmed, even though no work has really started yet. We are still trying to figure out how worship will look, both in terms of style and minor physical changes to the worship space. The vision for worship is a contemplative service - not contemporary music or a "blended" style, but more of a coffee house feel, if that makes sense. Our home church does a Saturday night service that we are trying to use as a template, tweaking it to fit our needs. But the pastor and I are not musicians, so we are trying to communicate the vision to a music leader who can do either traditional or contemporary, but prefers contemporary. In the meantime, there are folks "upset" about changes to worship, when all that's happened is that we've done some contemporary songs - we still do hymns too. That really shouldn't surprise me, I know, but I find it a little disappointing. I am still hopeful about the possibilities here, and we are praying about it daily, but I know the future is not certain for this little church. However, I am confident that even if the place closes in a couple years, God will reconcile all things and our work on behalf of the Kingdom of God is not in vain.

Our larger church is coming around, I think. They have had some internal discord left over from a previous pastor, and it's taken some time for things to settle down. Our wonderful pastor consultant that lead us through visioning with the smaller church has agreed to work with this one too. It is a great blessing! This is really a country church, but within a couple years, a huge development is coming - more than 20,000 homes and a business park are planned. The edge of the land slated for development is less than two miles from the church. It will transform this rural county into a more suburban environment, and even though the folks know it's coming, there is still some denial about how quickly things will change. We are hoping that this church family will be able to love the newcomers and grow in healthy ways as folks from all over the world will come to live near them. It's a tremendous opportunity.

On a more personal note, the pastor has been writing papers and I've been videotaping sermons and Bible studies for ordination. Most of the work has been done since Christmas, but I videotaped several sermons in the fall with this in mind. Ordination in the UMC is a long and involved process, especially compared to the much more autonomous Baptist church in which we both grew up. It is a double-edged sword, though. For many reasons, I am glad there is a high bar for ordination. But my wife graduated with an MDiv (with honors) from a prestigious seminary in 2009. She should pass ordination this spring, but of course that's not guaranteed. It seems to me the process could be streamlined a bit. I won't bore you with any details, but she has done an awful lot of work to prove herself to several groups of people. She is gifted for ministry by any measure anyone could come up with, and I pray she will pass this year. You can pray for that too, if you're so inclined.

2 comments:

Will be certainly praying for your wife! So great to hear her being so close to ordination! For the smaller church, when you say "coffee house feel" what does that really mean? Like more of a vespers service? With meditation and candle lighting, occasional chanting and repeated prayers? My wife's UMC church has a Sunday night service and I wonder if its similar to what your aim is at. Was the consultant associated with the Healthy Church Initiative? I sit on the HCI committee/consultant preparation committee for the upcoming fall assessment and it has been a huge learning experience for me. Almost any change is painful in these established churches, and breaking the country club feel is certainly not without resistance! What exciting opportunities for you and your church families all around! -Chad

Hi Chad - by "coffee house feel," I just mean low-key contemplative. The service we're modeling it after uses piano, acoustic guitar, sometimes drums (not a drum kit, not bongos - those tall drums you play with hands, not sticks - what do you call those?) More modern music but not high-energy praise band music. There's communion every week. You can sing along with the musicians or just listen - less standing and sitting. There's a lot of liturgy, but it still feels mellow. No doxology, but a prayer after offering. Still a sermon, but space is made for worshipers to be in thought/contemplative prayer. There are candles already lit when you come in, the musicians start playing/singing about 5 minutes before the scheduled start of the service. Definitely time for meditation/contemplative prayer, but I don't think they've ever done chanting.

As for the consultant, I'm not sure if he's involved with HCI, though that does sound familiar.

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About Me

As you might guess from the blog's name, I'm a pastor's husband. I'm also an engineer and a father of three amazing children. This blog is mostly just an outlet for me and a way to journal about this journey. Out of the deep respect I have for the people at our church, I am trying to keep a "10000 foot view" of our life here. I don't want to air dirty laundry or offend anyone where we are, so I'll leave out lots of details. But I will try to talk generically in a way that might help other pastors' husbands. At least they will know they're not alone. I would welcome comments from anyone, especially those who want to discuss life as a pastor's family.